Assuming such a thing is possible, it's a big weekend for the White Sox infield, and it starts with Tim Anderson.
It doesn't end there, because there are ramifications whether or not he's healthy enough to return to the lineup. Allow me to pin down some thoughts on everybody who isn't Andrew Vaughn.
Tim Anderson
Anderson hasn't started since last Saturday, when he was removed midgame after a lackluster effort on the basepaths, but Pedro Grifol attributed it to his shoulder. He pinch-hit a roller to the right side on Tuesday, a plate appearance that reset the clock on retroactively dating an IL stint, but tonight's lineup will tell us if an IL stint was ever going to be in the cards, or if the White Sox just wanted to give Anderson a extended mental break.
On one hand, it's a terrible time for Anderson to require a rest, what with Yoán Moncada out indefinitely, and even Romy González on the shelf. On the other, Anderson is hitting .249/.290/.292, and he has baseball's highest ground-ball rate of any player with over 200 plate appearances, and it isn't even close. Performance-wise, Anderson's presence may provide a distinction without a difference, so Anderson's return is less about whether he's going to provide a spark, and more about whether the Sox are going to continue to play short-handed.
Anderson's been worth -0.7 WAR according to Baseball-Reference.com, and -0.3 WAR according to FanGraphs, and I think his exit on Saturday illustrated the concept of "replacement level" quite handily. Zach Remillard entered and reached base all four times, including the game-tying and game-winning hit, and while that's the ultimate reward for a no-look shot, it gets to the heart of the concept, which is "trying somebody else can't hurt."
Speaking of which:
Zach Remillard
Remillard notched his first major-league hit on a bunt single, but he's 0-for-4 in his bunt attempts since -- two outs, two foul balls.
That's a lot of bunts, even for a 29-year-old rookie infielder who had a sub-.700 OPS in Charlotte, and mostly received his call-up because of the four injuries above him (Lenyn Sosa just returned to Charlotte's lineup after dealing with a strained oblique).
The argument for and against this approach can be made after watching this one he tried to spring on Martín Pérez in the fifth inning of Wednesday's loss.
Remillard laid down a good bunt, but Pérez thwarted it with a better play. If it worked, the White Sox would've had two on and nobody out. Because it didn't work, Pérez only threw one pitch, and trading a base for an out actually hampered the White Sox's chances of putting a dent in that five-run deficit.
All of his bunt attempts have come on the first pitch, including one he fouled back against Will Smith in the ninth inning on Monday. That was another high-risk, low-reward play. Best-case scenario, he loads the bases with still nobody out, but the threat of the double play he was trying to avoid remains very real. Most-case scenario, the tying run is still at the plate, with one fewer out to work with.
Were I convinced that Remillard's playing time was going to plummet starting tonight, I wouldn't have bothered singling this out because three of his five hits have been supremely clutch, and I don't want to look a gift (Trojan) horse in the mouth. This is more applicable in the event that Remillard has to keep playing for one reason or another.
Elvis Andrus
Remillard is pretty faithfully adhering to the Elvis Andrus playbook, in the sense that he never looks that bad on a per-game basis. He's only struck out 35 times over 201 plate appearances, and he's the only White Sox regular or semi-regular who hasn't grounded into a double play this year.
Then you look at his game log, and his OPS bumps its head on a .555 ceiling before sliding back down towards something unplayable.
He still earns his keep as the most playable shortstop option in Anderson's absence, but if Anderson can ever establish staying power over the next few weeks, I wonder if the Sox will start realizing those plate appearances can be better used elsewhere.
Jake Burger
Grifol's update on Moncada's health wasn't much of one ...
“It could be 10 days, it could be two weeks. I don’t have an answer."
... so Burger will continue earning all the looks at third base for the foreseeable future.
He's started eight consecutive games at third base in Moncada's place, and he's hitting a front-loaded 5-for-32. He homered three times over the first two games, and is 2-for-22 with two walks and eight strikeouts since.
While plenty's been made about Burger's suppressed playing time, he's on pace for 432 plate appearances, which would easily establish a career high. Thanks to all the time Burger missed due to the twice-ruptured Achilles, we're still learning about Burger on the fly. He's made it a mostly pleasant exercise -- His defense isn't terrible! He's faster than we realized! -- but he's never played regularly enough to be exposed to a regular grind of a regular season, and I wonder how much of his June swoon is attributable to an unprecedented schedule. Or maybe he's holding up just fine, and it's more about the book pitchers have been able to build on him.
